A/N: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of it's characters in any way, shape or form.

TRIGGER ALERT: While not in every chapter there are chapters that mention rape and/or abuse.

The song for this chapter is Bad Dream by Ruelle

Chapter 24

Adrian didn't know how long they had been walking but it had felt like forever. It didn't take long before Adrian had needed help staying upright and since Glenn could barely stand on his own as it was, that left the woman to help her. "My name's Adrian, by the way." she told the woman since she was tired of the uncomfortable silence. "Michonne." the woman finally told her after a few heartbeats of silence.

"What happened to your leg?" she asked Michonne. She couldn't see the expression on Michonne's face but she could see that her head was facing her in the low light of the flashlight that she was using. "I can feel your limp." Adrian explained. "Oh. One of the Governor's men shot me after I decided I wanted to leave Woodbury. He sent a few of them after me but only one of them managed to get me." she told her, keeping her voice quiet so as not to draw any walkers their way.

"So, how'd you get wrapped up into this big mess?" Adrian asked her, also keeping her voice low. Adrian was thankful that her legs were just fine so the walking wasn't as painful as it could've been had her legs been injured too. She was also thankful that Michonne was willing to engage her in conversation because it helped keep most of her focus off of the pain.

"I was at the market when the man who shot me kidnapped you guys. I had heard what you guys had said about being at a prison and the direction it was in. Once y'all were gone I took the basket that was dropped and made my way to the prison." she said.

"You were there? And you just watched?" Glen turned sharply from in front of them and angrily whispered at Michonne. "I could barely walk after getting shot. What did you expect me to do? If I had showed myself while I was injured I would've been killed and you still would've been taken and with me dead then who would've been able to tell your people that you had been taken, much less where to find you?" Michonne asked him just as angry.

"That's enough Glenn. What happened happened and there's nothing we can do about it now. And she's right, if it wasn't for her me, you, and Maggie would all be dead and the others wouldn't even have a direction to look in for us. Now we need to keep moving." she told him firmly when he turned his glare on her. She did not have the time nor the patience for his temper tantrum right now. When she didn't drop her own glare from Glenn he let out an angry huff and turned back around and started walking again.

"Well, while the situation wasn't ideal, thank you for telling the others where to find us and showing them how to find us. I wasn't just blowing smoke when I said that we'd all be dead if you guys hadn't come when you did." Adrian told her. Michonne was quiet for so long that Adrian thought she had decided to stop talking after Glenn's outburst. "You're welcome." Michonne finally said in the darkness. The silence afterwards was more comfortable than not.

They finally reached the car, thankfully without meeting too many walkers that Michonne managed to take out herself, and it was still dark outside. They didn't know how long it took them to get there or even how far the others were behind them, because as far as Adrian and Glenn were concerned the others were just fine and would be with them shortly.

They refused to believe anything else.

Glenn spent his time staying quiet as he every so often changed positions from standing and pacing or sitting on the ground. Michonne mostly stayed standing up against the car, although she would occasionally sit on the ground and lean against the car that way. Adrian spent most of her time leaning against the front tire of the car and dozed. After her first little nap she felt more awake but no less in pain. She remembered hearing that it was better to use sore muscles than to baby them, so with literally nothing else better to do, she decided to listen to that advice.

She started to think against that advise when she tried to get off the ground on her own. Needless to say that Michonne helped her up off the ground. She leaned against the side of the hood and decided to do something simple and just stretch. She grabbed her left arm and pulled it over to her right side and instantly felt the muscles surrounding her ribs protest against the action. Adrian quietly groaned at the pain but refused to give up. She kept the pose until the pain finally dulled down to an ache before she did the same to her right arm. The pose wasn't as painful as the previous one but it was still a little sore.

She then decided to stretch her arms behind her head and got the same reaction from her sore side as before but she did the same as before and waited until the pain dulled before she swapped positions. After a while she gave up and sat back down against the tire and decided to doze while she could. After the fire and destruction they had dealt to The Governor it was only a matter of time before he was on their doorstep ready to return the favor.

The sun hadn't been up long before their peace and quiet was disturbed. "Glenn! Adrian!" they heard Rick whisper loudly from the trees. Glenn looked up at the sound of Rick's voice and quickly stood up. Adrian's eyes snapped open at Rick's voice and scrambled to stand up, the adrenaline that the shock of his voice had given her dulled the pain. Adrian, Glenn, and Michonne all ran around the car and into the woods to see Rick hurrying toward them. "Now, we got a problem." Rick said right before Glenn laid eyes on said problem.

Glenn raised his gun and aimed it at Merle the same time that Michonne unsheathed her blade and pointed it in Merle's direction. Both people were being held back from outright killing the man, Daryl for Glenn and Rick for Michonne. Maggie was standing beside Adrian and also had her gun trained on Merle. At the moment Adrian didn't give a single solid damn about Merle Dixon. All she cared about was that Rick, Maggie, and Daryl were back safe and whole.

There was a lot of screaming and yelling from Glenn and Michonne, most of which she didn't bother to sift through to make any sense of it.

"He helped us get out of there." Daryl snapped at Glenn, standing in front of him and trying to get him to lower the gun.

"Yeah, right after he beat the shit outta you." Rick snarked at Daryl.

"Hey, man, we both took our licks." Merle said from his sad excuse of human shields as he leaned against a pine tree behind him.

"Jackass." Daryl said to his brother.

"Hey, shut up." Merle told him.

"Enough!" Rick yelled back at Merle. It seemed Merle opening his stupid mouth only seemed to rile up Michonne and Glenn more. "Man, get that thing outta my face!" Daryl yelled at Glenn as he kept trying to aim his gun at Merle but couldn't get past Daryl. "Man, it looks like you've gone native, brother." Merle said, laughing at the scene in front of him.

"No better than you hangin' out with that psycho back there!" Daryl turned to yell at Merle.

"Merle, if you can't keep your damn mouth shut I'm gonna shoot you myself and I've got the best line of sight out of everybody here." Adrian told the older Dixon as she glared at him. Daryl quickly threw a glare at her.

"Adrian." he said, his tone warning.

"Don't "Adrian" me! That fucker hit me! Twice! I'm owed payback one way or another!" she yelled at him.

"Oh, yeah, man. He's a charmer, I'll give him that. Been puttin' the wood to your girlfriend Andrea, big time." Merle said as he looked at Michonne.

"What? Andrea's in Woodbury?" Glenn asked shocked. Thankfully at the moment all weapons were lowered and Adrian hoped that they stayed that way. "Right next to the Governor." Daryl told them. Michonne took a step towards Merle before Rick stepped into her path. "I told you to drop that. Do you know Andrea?" Rick asked Michonne, who stayed silent. "Do you know Andrea?" Rick asked her again, his tone more forceful this time, but Michonne still stayed silent. "Yep, she does. Her and blondie spent all winter together, cuddled up in the forest. My Nubian queen here had two pet walkers. Arms cut off, jaws cut off, kept 'em in chains. Kinda ironic now that I think about it." Merle said from his spot.

"Shut up, bro!" Daryl yelled at his brother.

"Hey, man, we snagged 'em outta the woods. Andrea was close to dying." Merle told them.

"Is that why she's with him?" Maggie asked, her first words since they had showed up.

"Yep. Snug as two little bugs, those two. So whatchu gonna do now, Sheriff? Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs, and cowards." Merle said.

"Daryl, if he doesn't shut his fucking mouth real quick, I'm going to shoot him." Adrian said in warning to Daryl. She hadn't been serious the first time but she was this time.

"Shut up!" warned Rick.

"Look at yall, man. Pathetic, the lot of ya. All these guns and no bullets in 'em." Merle said, taunting them all.

Adrian's temper flared. She dropped her gun and went straight for Daryl, which confused them all, until she grabbed his knife and quickly pulled it from the sheath before she turned to Merle and raised it with the full intention of stabbing the man. "Fucking hell! Adrian!" Daryl yelled in shock as he quickly grabbed Adrian. One arm wrapped around her waist while the other grabbed the hand that was holding his knife. Everyone looked on in surprise that Adrian had done such a thing, except for Merle who had jump away from the fire spitting ginger that was holding his brothers knife and fully prepared to stab him it seemed.

"Merle, shut up!" Daryl yelled back at his brother as he attempted to keep his knife wielding girlfriend under control. "Shut up, yourselves, you bunch of pussies!" Merle yelled as he took a step toward Adrian and Daryl. Rick, who had had more than enough of Merle, slammed the butt of his gun against the back of Merle's head. Merle's head didn't seem to be as thick as Adrian had first thought because Merle dropped like a rock in a river. "Asshole." Rick muttered down to the man as they all just stood there looking at the now unconscious man.

With Merle finally quiet and under control, for the time being, everyone decided to step away and take a much needed breather. Adrian and Daryl were still standing where they were when Rick had knocked Merle unconscious, starring down at the redneck sleeping in the dirt. Daryl turned his gaze back to Adrian to see that if he let her go that she was fully prepared to do something to his dumbass brother, what that something was though he wasn't sure.

"Gimme that damn thing." he said as he pried his knife from her hand and put it away.

"What the hell was you thinkin'?" he asked her, forcing her to finally look at him instead of his brother.

"I was thinking that you can be stabbed for being an obnoxious fucker and still live." she told him as she finally took him in.

He had a cut on his right cheekbone that still had some blood smeared underneath but it looked like it had stopped bleeding and his skin was covered in dirt and sweat, not that that was anything unusual for him. "You don't look bad, all things considered." she said as she gently touched the area around his cut.

"Yeah, well, you look like shit." he told her as he finally got a good look at her.

She still had the scratches along her arms that he had seen the night before although now he could see just how many there were. They weren't very big and didn't look like many of them had even bled. She had a cut on her left temple that looked like it had stopped bleeding some time during the night. She had a long cut on her bottom lip, which looked a little puffy from whatever abuse it had suffered to get the cut and a smaller cut on the corner of her top lip. She had a large bruise on the right side of her jaw, which had probably been what had caused the large cut, and she had a black eye on her left side, and a bruise on her left cheekbone.

He took her hand from his face and looked at her knuckles to see them bruised as well before he gave them a gentle kiss. "I didn't just sit there while he beat me, ya know." she told him softly as she looked at her bruised knuckles as well. "Let me see the rest of it." Daryl told her more than asked. She took a step away and lifted her shirt until it reached the bottom of her bra, hissing in pain as the movement of raising her arms. There was a large dark bruise on the left side of her rib cage and lighter bruises on her stomach.

The longer Daryl looked at the bruises the more angry he started to get so he gently took her shirt from her hands and pulled it back down. His eyes caught on to the graze on her left shoulder and softly touched her arm underneath the wound. She turned to see what had caught his attention. "That was while we were running for cover." she whispered.

"Yeah, I know. Just didn't get to look at it when it happened." he told her. Daryl took her face in his hands as gently as he could without hurting her and just starred at her. He felt a mix of emotions the longer he looked at her. Anger, relief, and something he couldn't quite place.

The reason for his anger was starring him in the face, though he tried to keep his anger in check. He doubted that there was anything that Adrian could've done to the Governor to warrant such a brutal beating. He knew she wasn't some damsel waiting to be rescued, that she could take care of herself. But she wasn't as strong as most men she met, so for a man who knew he was so much physically stronger than his opponent, and a woman no less, to go so far made his blood boil.

His relief at seeing her alive and well, for the most part, outweighed his anger at the moment. He had been so worried when that woman had told them that Adrian had been taken along with Glenn and Maggie. Of course he had been worried about Glenn and Maggie but it was when she had told them that Adrian had been taken as well that he had felt like someone had stolen the breath from his lungs. He had only felt like that one other time since he had known her and that was the day that they had been ambushed by that large herd of walkers in the woods. The sound of her screams and disappearing from his sight had made his blood nearly freeze. The relief he had felt that day when he had found her and learned that her injury was a simple dislocated shoulder instead of a deadly bite was just as powerful today as it had been that day all those months ago. He had been so worried that they might show up to save them only to be too late, and they nearly had been.

Adrian closed her eyes and leaned into Daryl's touch, just soaking in the moment while she could. They finally broke apart when they heard Rick call their names from the road. They turned to see Rick, Maggie, and Glenn standing several yards away from the car and headed their way, Daryl's arm around her waist while she leaned into his side, her arm around his waist as well. Most would assume that the two were staying close after their separation but it was just as much for support as it was about staying close for them.

"What's up?" Daryl asked when they got close enough. "It's about Merle." Rick said. Adrian felt Daryl instantly tense up underneath her fingers and could tell from the faces of the others that this was a conversation none of them were going to like. "What about him?" he asked as he felt Adrian loosen her hold on him and put about a foot of space between them. "He can't come back with us. It just wouldn't work." Rick told him.

"It's gotta work." Daryl told him.

"He'll just stir things up with everybody." Rick said.

"The Governor's probably on his way to the prison right now. Merle knows how he thinks and we could use the muscle." Daryl said.

"He's right, Rick. We don't know anything about the Governor, and last night we lit a fire of revenge under his ass. Merle's been with him for who knows how long and he's been his right hand man. If anyone can help us out smart the bastard it'd be him." Adrian agreed.

"I'm not livin' with him." Maggie said.

"Daryl, come on. You really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Carol and Beth?" Glenn asked him.

"He ain't no rapist." Daryl said, defending his brother.

"Well his buddy is." Glenn said. Adrian thought that was a weak argument on Glenn's part. Just because someone was friends with someone who did certain things didn't mean that the other person approved of it.

"They ain't buddies no more. Not after last night." Daryl said.

"There's no way Merle's gonna live there without putting everybody at each others throat, you know that." Rick said.

"So what, you're gonna cut Merle loose but bring the Last Samurai home?" Daryl asked as he gestured to Michonne who was leaning against the car.

"She's not coming back either." Rick said.

"She's not in a state to be on her own." Maggie told them.

"Maggie's right, Rick. She can't run if she gets into trouble. If you leave her here you might as well kill her yourself." Adrian told him.

Michonne wasn't terribly off but with her injured leg it did mean she was at a disadvantage if she got surrounded by walkers and couldn't run away if possible. "She did bring you to us." Glenn agreed.

"And then ditched us." Rick said.

"Don't tell me that you couldn't have known that she had her own agenda to telling you about Woodbury that was just outta the goodness of her heart. If she hadn't been injured when we were taken what are the chances that she even would've shown up at the prison in the first place?" Adrian asked him. She liked Michonne well enough but she'd have to call Bullshit on Rick if he didn't at least suspect that she'd have her own reasons for going back to a place that had sent people to kill her for leaving.

"At least let my dad stitch her up?" Maggie asked.

"She's too unpredictable." Rick said as he looked back at Michonne.

"Oh, come one, Rick." Adrian groaned. Rick's eyed locked onto Adrian and she could tell from his eyes alone that he was getting annoyed.

"What, Adrian?" he demanded.

"You're being stupid and paranoid, that's what. You won't let us take her back to at least have her wound treated, after everything she did for us back there? What fucking harm could it do? She already knows where the prison is. Hershel's already stitched her up once, what's she gonna do this time? Go rabid and start attacking all of us? If you don't think we can keep one woman under control then we're seriously fucked when the Governor shows up on our doorstep, because I can guarantee you that he won't be alone." she ranted.

If Michonne didn't stay with them, so be it, but the least she could do was let Rick know her feelings about not at least treating the woman and being the decent people she knew them still to be. "She's right. And we don't know her." Daryl said as he looked at Michonne. "Merle, Merle's blood." Daryl told Rick.

"No, Merle's your blood. My blood, my family, is standing right here and waiting for us back at the prison." Glenn told him.

"Glenn, that's not fair. Merle may not be your blood or family but he is Daryl's. It's a miracle that Merle even survived to fuck us over but he's alive and he and Daryl are finally back together and now you just want Daryl to turn his back on him?" Adrian told him.

"Are you serious right now? After everything that Merle did to us back there?" Glenn asked her in disbelief.

"Put yourself if Daryl's shoes. What if it had been one of your sisters that was back there instead? And then she turned her back on the people she had lived with this whole time to be with you again? Can you seriously look me in the eyes and tell me that you wouldn't fight to bring her back with us?" Adrian asked him. She knew her point was made when he looked away from her.

"The bottom line is that Merle isn't part of this family. And we don't trust people who aren't family. But you, Daryl, you're part of that family. Merle...Merle's not family." Rick finally said.

Daryl got quiet for a second, a quiet that made Adrian uneasy. She turned to see him looking at her and the look made her feel like her whole world was about to change. She looked into his eyes and saw sadness, and possibly some level of grief, before he looked away from her and back to Rick.

"Fine. We'll fend for ourselves. It was always just us before this." Daryl told them. Daryl's words made Adrian feel like the rug had been pulled out from underneath her. The look now made sense. In Daryl's mind he only had two options, stay with the group and leave Merle behind or go with Merle and leave the group behind. The others refused to let Merle go back to the prison, so the only option in Daryl's mind was to leave the people who loved him, who would die for him, and leave with his brother, just the two of them.

Daryl and Rick were half way to the car when Adrian finally snapped back to herself and started after the men. "Take care of Lil' Ass Kicker and Carl. He's one tough kid." Adrian heard Daryl say as she rounded the car from behind Rick as Daryl turned his back and off the road.

"No." was all she said. Adrian didn't care about anyone else at the moment, only the man she had her eyes locked onto. Daryl turned around and seen Adrian walking after him.

"No. You are not doing this." she told him as she stepped up to him.

"I won't leave him again, Adrian. I did it once before, and by some miracle we found each other. I ain't gonna leave him again. If the group won't accept him then there's no me without him. That's just the way it's gonna be." Daryl told her. Adrian didn't realize it but Daryl could see the tears welling up in her eyes.

"Then...then I'm coming too. Maybe we can find a place nearby until everyone cools down and talk about it again." she said.

"Adrian." Daryl told her softly as he heard her breathing start to shallow as he emotions built.

"No!" she said, her voice wavering and she fisted her hands into his shirt. "No, you're not leaving me. Not after everything we've been through. You will not fucking leave me behind!" she yelled as the tears finally fell from her eyes.

"Adrian." he said as he tried to wipe her tears away but they were quickly replaced by more.

"No! You're not fucking leaving! I'll fucking hog tie that stupid bastard and tape his mouth shut if that's what it takes, but you're not fucking leaving here without me. Either you come back to the prison or I'm leaving with you." she said as one of her fist connected with his chest.

"I will not be left behind. Not again." she cried. She dropped her head against his chest, unable to stop the sobs that she tried to hold back. "Please. Please. I don't want to be left behind. I'm always left behind. Please." she begged him. Daryl wrapped his arms around Adrian as she cried. The sound of her sobs broke his heart and it hurt even worse to know that he was the reason for her tears. He knew it was one of her greatest fears, to always outlive those she loved and to be left behind. Her mother. Her grandfather. Her great-aunt and great-uncle. Her son. All loved ones that she had been there to see die and leave her behind. He could only imagine how much worse this time could possibly be because this time, this time, the person she loved was willingly walking away from her.

He squeezed his eyes shut to fight off the tears he could feel stinging the back of his eyes as he held her tight. She was begging to leave with him and everything in him wanted to say yes, to let her leave with him and Merle, but he knew he couldn't. No matter how much she fought against it, she was hurt and needed to have Hershel check her over and stay behind the safety of the prison walls. Even if she had been well enough to leave with him, she would soon enough regret her decision to leave.

She loved everyone in the group too much. She didn't realize it, but she was a big part of their group. Even at her lowest she always made sure that Carl and Lori, when she'd been pregnant with Ass Kicker, had everything they could possibly need. She cared for Carl as if he were her own and would sing Ass Kicker to sleep long before she was ever born. Yes, she would regret leaving, even if it was only for the sake of the kids. He knew everyone in the group loved those kids, but he was pretty sure the only person who loved them more than Rick, was Adrian.

He opened his eyes to see everyone standing on the road looking at them, sadness and sympathy on every face. Whether the looks were because he was leaving, Adrian breaking down, or both, he didn't know, but he did know that if he didn't leave right now that he might not leave at all. Daryl unwrapped his arms from around Adrian and forced her face from his chest and made her look at him.

The look broke his heart even more. His hands were soaked in her tears, the hot streams of salt water seemed never ending. Her eyes were red from crying, bright and glassy, the green of her eyes stood out even more than usual. He could tell from the way her face fell even more that she knew he wasn't taking her with him. That he was leaving her behind. "No. Please. Daryl, please." she begged him. Daryl brought his lips to hers and kissed her probably harder than he should have. He knew in the back of his mind that her lips were injured, but knowing that this was likely the last kiss they would ever share made him not care.

He could taste the tears, feel them soak his hands even more, but all he cared about was this one last kiss with her. This woman that had made his feel and experience so much in the time that they had known each other. If it had been any other person in the world besides Merle he would never walk away from her but it was Merle. His brother, his blood. It had ripped him apart to have to leave Merle behind the first time. He couldn't do it again. He just couldn't. Not even for her.

Daryl pulled away from her and took one last look at her beautiful face, even as bruised as it was. "Rick." Daryl called out to his friend softly. "Daryl, please." Adrian kept begging. Daryl pried her hands off of him as gently as he could. It was as he turned away from her that Adrian felt another pair of arms circle her waist.

"No! Daryl!" Adrian yelled as she realized Rick was there to hold her back, more than anything else.

"Daryl!" she yelled after him as she fought against Rick's hold.

"Daryl!" she yelled again as Daryl reached Merle, who wrapped his arm around his baby brother with a wide smile on his face.

"Daryl!" she yelled again, but he never answered. He didn't even turn back to look at her.

Adrian's sobs were bone deep and wracked her entire body. Her knees finally gave way and hit the dirt, dragging Rick down with her. "No. Rick, he can't leave. He can't!" she cried, her words broken and coated in grief. Adrian looked up in the direction that the Dixon brothers had gone but her eyes were so blurry from tears that all she could make out were colors. Adrian sucked in the only deep breath she had been able to manage since she had started crying and screamed "DARYL!"

But she knew in her broken heart that he wasn't coming back, it's didn't matter how many times she screamed his name.

TWD

Adrian didn't know how long they had been driving before they stopped. After Rick had finally managed to pick her up off the ground he gave her to Maggie who had helped her get into the back seat and held her tight as she cried. Her sobs and Maggie's soothing words were the only sound in the car as they drove.

Adrian finally stopped sobbing but her tears didn't stop. After she had gone quiet Adrian wrapped her arms around her young friend and buried her wet face into the girls neck. Maggie said nothing as her shirt soaked up Adrian's tears. When the car stopped Adrian looked out the windshield to see that there was a tree covering half of the road while an old red truck sat abandoned across the road.

Rick and Glenn got out of the car knowing that it had to be moved for them to pass. Maggie climbed out next knowing that they would need help. Adrian climbed out soon after just to get out of the car. It seemed that now that she wasn't distracted, that the walls were trying to close in on her. She knew she should hurt more, especially after her crying so hard, but all she felt was numb. She knew that it wouldn't last forever, the numbness, and that eventually the pain would all come back, the physical and the emotional, so she took the reprieve while she had it.

She watched as Glenn opened the truck door and a walker came from out of the cab. Glenn grabbed the walker and threw on the ground for viscously stomping on it's face, repeatedly, until nothing was left to stomp on anymore. Glenn walked away from the walker and to the back of the truck, grabbing at his sore ribs. Rick followed behind him, a look of confusion on his face. Adrian had known since they had first been reunited back at Woodbury that Glenn was angry and it seemed like he couldn't hold it in anymore.

Adrian followed Maggie around the truck, but unlike Maggie, she wasn't there to help push the truck out of the road.

"You didn't kill him." Glenn said to Rick, the anger clear in his voice.

"That's not why we went back." Rick told him.

"No. You went back for Daryl. And now he's gone and the Governor's still alive." Glenn sneered at Rick.

"Daryl was the priority." Rick told him.

"I should've been there." Glenn said.

"You were in no condition." Rick told him.

Even in Adrian's somewhat detached state, she knew that Glenn's words were ridiculous. "But my girlfriend was?!" Glenn asked. At this point she wasn't even sure if Glenn knew why he was really so angry. Sure she was sure a lot of things factored into it, Maggie's treatment from the Governor, the abuse Merle dealt him while in captivity, and now Daryl being...she could only imagine that it all added into his anger, but it all had to start from somewhere.

"Glenn, this isn't about us." Maggie told him. Everyone was emotionally raw in some way from the last 24 hours, which all seemed to come to a head as the screaming match ensued. "All the effort, all the risk we took...and Daryl just runs off with Merle?" Glenn said, not able to understand why he would do such a thing. "He had his reasons." Rick told him quietly.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Rick." Glenn told him.

Adrian seen Glenn's eyes land on her then. "And what about you, huh?" Glenn demanded.

"Excuse me?" Adrian asked, her eyebrows rising in surprise at the sudden question and anger thrown her way.

"Glenn, you leave her alone." Maggie demanded as she took a step in Adrian's direction. "You were just gonna leave too, huh? Or better yet, why didn't you make him stay?!" Glenn yelled at her. "We are up to our necks in shit right now and Daryl is gone and you were just gonna leave with him?! Daryl's gone! Why didn't you make him stay?!" Glenn screamed at her.

Adrian then felt the numbness wash away as anger took it's place. How dare he place the blame of Daryl leaving on her. As if she hadn't tried to get him to stay. Adrian's green eyes narrowed on the Korean man and she took a step in his direction and pointed her finger at him. "You wanna do this now, you little shit? Fine. If you wanna place the blame for everything that happened, don't throw it on Merle or the Governor. Go look in a fucking mirror!" she yelled at him.

"Adrian!" Maggie gasped.

"Adrian, that's enough." Rick told her.

"No! He wants to know why Daryl left, it's not because of Merle, it's because of him!" she yelled at Rick.

"How the hell is al this my fault? Merle's the one to took us there!" Glenn yelled back.

"Exactly!" she yelled as she pointed her finger at him. "Merle took us there because you wanted to leave him behind with nothing but a promise that Daryl would come back for him. I told you back at the market to leave me there with Merle, because even Merle was smart enough to know that you guys wouldn't leave me behind. And you showing up to the prison to tell Daryl that I had been left behind with his brother, who he thought was dead, and you thought what? That he would do nothing? Daryl would've been on his bike and through the gates as if his ass was on fire! But you thought that you knew best, and now we're here! So tell me, who started this whole shit show, huh?" she screamed at him.

"You bitch." Glenn said as he took a steps towards Adrian. Rick quickly pushed Glenn back away from the woman as Maggie grabbed Adrian and dragged her backwards as well. "Adrian, that was uncalled for." Maggie told her. Adrian looked over Maggie's shoulder to see Glenn and Rick hissing at each other angrily before she turned her eyes back to her friend. "You look me in the eyes and tell me I'm wrong. Hindsight is 20/20, right? So you tell me that leaving me behind with Merle at the market wasn't the right call." Adrian demanded softly, not angry with Maggie.

Maggie was quiet for a long minute. "It doesn't matter who was right and who was wrong. What's done is done and you shouldn't have said that." Maggie told her. "We both know that all of this could've been avoided if Glenn had just listened to me. Merle didn't trust that we would tell Daryl to go back for him but he did know that somebody would come back for me if I was left behind, especially if it was my idea, so why shouldn't it have been Daryl to go back for me." Adrian told her. Yesterday, while she had thought that they could've avoided being kidnapped if Glenn had listened to her, she had never said it out loud and she had intended to keep it to herself until Glenn blamed her for Daryl leaving with Merle, it had just slipped out in her anger.

Adrian walked away from Maggie and back to the car. She quietly slipped back into the backseat of the car and starred out of the windshield, not really taking in anything she was seeing. With her anger at Glenn now slowly draining away, she didn't even realize that she had started to silently cry. She tried to think of anything to get her mind off of Daryl but her mind always circled back to the hard fact that Daryl was gone and nothing any of them did would bring him back to them.

TWD

No one spoke the rest of the trip back to the prison. It was a comfortable trip by no means since everyone could feel the heavy feelings of anger and sadness coming mostly from Glenn and Adrian. Adrian watched the gates to the prison finally come into view and seen Carl and Carol were on gate duty, waiting for them to return.

Carl opened the gate so the could drive through and Rick stopped the car and got out telling Maggie to drive up the rest of the way. Maggie climbed through the seats to do as Rick said and drove through the second gate that already open and waiting for them. Hershel and Beth were waiting for them in the courtyard when they pulled up and all started climbing out of the car.

Glenn said nothing as he got out and walked into the cell block. Maggie ran to her father and sister and embraced them tightly. Adrian quietly got out of the car and made her way past Hershel and Beth. She heard them softly call her name but Maggie told them to let her go and she was eternally grateful to her brunette friend for doing so. She was too emotionally raw right then to accept any kind of love and comfort from anyone. She needed time to get herself together as much as possible before she surrounded herself around the others.

She walked into the common area of the cell block and noticed that Axel was in there talking quietly with four people she had never seen before. One was a young boy with dark hair and dirty clothes that slightly hung loose on his frame. There was a man standing next to him with thinning brown hair, a stubbly beard, and his clothes were loose as well. Standing beside Axel was a man and woman, both dark skinned. The woman was thin but her clothes weren't ill fitting, as if she had been thin before walkers. The man was the largest man she had seen since Oscar and Big Tiny. He was tall and fairly muscular, as if he would have no trouble whatsoever taking any one of them out. A dark beard covering his lower face, a black cotton beanie covering the top of his head, a dark colored muscle shirt that showed off his large arms, and a pair of cargo pants.

Axel was shocked to see the condition Adrian was in when she walked in and looked over at he and Tyresse's group. He didn't expect to see her so hurt after being gone, but she looked more than hurt, she looked sad. "Adrian." Axel said softly, as if to ask her what had happened and if she was alright. Adrian put up a hand to stop Axel from asking any more questions and continued walking towards the cell block.

She walked into the cell block and made her way straight for her cell. She walked up the stairs, thankful again that it was her upper body that was hurting rather than her legs so that the walk up the steps wasn't painful. Adrian stopped at the top of the stairs and looked down at hers and Daryl's mattress. Less than a week ago they had been sleeping blissfully on that mattress, before the nightmares had plagued her. The nightmares that had driven her and Daryl from the prison and spent the most peaceful days they had had together since the farm.

Adrian felt the now familiar warmth of her tears as they streamed down her face once again that day. She didn't know how much she had cried since Daryl left but she knew it was more than she had since her son had died. She walked to her cell and closed the door behind her with a loud bang as she fell onto the thin mattress of her bed and let her tears take over once again.

TWD

Adrian didn't know how long she had been in her cell, time didn't seem to exist for her inside her semi-dark cell. She knew she wasn't the only one who had lost Daryl, everyone had loved Daryl and shocked that he had left them, but none of them had loved him like she did. It was kind of like Rick and Lori. They had all been shocked and upset that Lori was dead, but none of them felt the blow like Rick did. Granted, Lori had died tragically to save her unborn baby while Daryl had simply left them to be with his brother, so it was unfair to compare her pain to Rick's.

She could hear Carol and Beth talking quietly outside her cell on the perch but she didn't care enough to listen to the actual words. She knew that in the grand scheme of things that she didn't have time to wallow in self-pity like she was but she couldn't seem to make herself care at that moment. The Governor was coming for them, when and how was a mystery, but he was coming for them. All of their lives were at stake, they were so out numbered and out gunned that it was almost funny.

But none of that mattered to her right then because one of the main reasons she had fought so hard against Merle and the Governor was now gone. He had left them as if it was the easiest thing in the world to him, to turn his back on the people that had loved and respected and depended on him every day. She wanted to hate him for leaving, she really did and maybe on some level she did, but she also knew why he did it. It was a very rare individual these days that had any member of their blood family left alive and anyone who did would naturally want to stay with them no matter the cost. For the group the cost was them being left behind while Daryl and Merle went off on their own to survive, away from the war that was soon to show up on their doorstep.

Adrian was pulled from her thoughts at the sound of someone opening the door to her cell. She turned to see that it was Hershel. He stood in the doorway and just looked down at her. She could see from the light shining in through the windows across from her cell that he was looking at her with sympathy. Whether that sympathy was because of her current physical state, her emotional state, or both, she wasn't sure, but she knew sympathy when she seen it.

"Please don't look at me like that." she told him softly as she turned her body away from the wall but made no move to sit up.

"Like what?" he asked as he made his way inside and sat on a stool that sat in the corner of her cell.

"Like I'm in need of pity or sympathy. Believe me, I've got pity covered in spades right now. The pity party in here is at an all time high." she told him as she slowly sat up.

"Adrian, I'm allowed to show you sympathy. You went through a hard ordeal, and I'm not just talking about Daryl. It seems that your time away effected all of you differently." Hershel told her softly as he lifted her face so he could get a better look at it. "Yeah, that's one way to put it, I suppose." Adrian scoffed. "You and Glenn seemed to have been worked over pretty good. Did Merle do this to you?" Hershel asked as he gently cleaned the cut on her temple.

"No. No, this is all curtesy of the Governor. Merle is only responsible for the busted lip and the bruise on my jaw. Although, I guess in his defense I did have a knife at his throat before he did it." she told him. "What could you have possibly have done to deserve such a beating?" he asked as he moved on to cleaning the bullet graze on her shoulder. "I refused to cooperate and then fought back when he tried to use me as a punching bag." she told him. She could see the pain in his eyes at seeing her so hurt. They all loved each other like family, they had all been through too much to feel anything else for each other, so when one of them was hurt the others hurt for them.

"It's not your fault, you know that don't you?" Hershel asked her. She went to ask if he meant the beating or Daryl but she had her answer when she looked at him.

"I know. It doesn't mean it hurts any less." she said, her voice wavering. "I know why he left, and even on some level I understand, we all do, but it doesn't mean that it didn't completely shatter me when he walked away." she said, feeling the tears flow once again as she remembered as he walked away as she yelled his name.

Hershel didn't know what to say to her. It was clear to anyone who really looked at her that she was hurting in more ways than one. They were all upset that Daryl had left with his brother, but it seemed none of them felt that pain as deeply as the young woman in front of him did. It was hard to find love in such times as they were experiencing and he had been lucky enough to see it twice since Rick and the others had shown up at his farm. First with Maggie and Glenn and then again with Adrian and Daryl. He didn't know if Adrian and Daryl were aware that it was love that they felt for each other but anyone who had ever felt true love for someone else could see that's what they felt for each other when they looked at each other.

Some times it was obvious to every one else before it was obvious to the people in love but he suspected that Adrian already knew that what she felt for Daryl was love. He knew that nothing any of them said or did was going to take away her pain, and unfortunately for her she was just going to have to feel it and deal with it in any way she saw best to deal with it. Loving someone the way they loved each other was a double-edged sword. It could make you feel like you you take on the world and overcome any obstacle but it could also shatter you and make you feel like your world is ending.

Love was a person's greatest strength and also their greatest weakness. Truer words had never been spoken. Hershel moved from his stool onto the bed beside her and wrapped his arms the young woman as she quietly cried.

TWD

Hershel had finally left after offering her the comfort she didn't know she needed right then. He left her with instructions to rest as much as possible since she was the most injured of everyone who had returned. She didn't lie back down after he had left but instead sat cross legged with her back against the cold concrete that made up the wall of her cell. She could hear the the others talking somewhere in the cell block but she couldn't make out more than their voices. She heard the loud squeaking of one of the doors opening and then heard nothing.

She figured that they had went out to talk to whoever the people were that she had walked by that were talking to Axel when she had walked into the common area. Adrian nearly jumped out of her skin when she suddenly heard Rick screaming. She scrambled from her bed, panic filling her as Rick continued to scream thinking that something was wrong with the others.

"LEAVE! GET OUT!" Rick screamed as she ran down the stairs and towards the common area.

She looked around to see the strangers gone. Rick was pacing and he kept screaming as everyone had backed away from him, fear clearly written on their faces. Everyone had backed as far away from Rick as they could as he continued to scream for reasons only he knew. Adrian noted the crazed and panicked look on his face as he kept screaming. Adrian didn't know what had possibly set Rick off to cause this kind of behavior but one thing was clear to her. They were all fucked worse than she had even realized.